Applesauce Spice Muffins

Yesterday morning I woke up wanting to bake something easy and delicious for breakfast. Muffins were the first thing to come to mind but then came the hard part: What kind? I was out out of blueberries thanks to my berry pie. Blueberry muffins are my all time favorite but I had to think outside the box...Then it hit me, I have applesauce, something most people have in their pantry! I searched google and ended up putting together a few different recipes and picking and choosing to what would suit what I had around. 

These turned out to be flavorful, warm, comforting and a bit fall-like (would be awesome with pumpkin!) They were perfect with the added crumble for the extra texture and super easy to make and bake. We're even eating the leftovers for breakfast this morning!

* You can certainly "healthify" these muffins up with half whole wheat flour and half AP flour, add chunks of cut up apples or raisins, less sugar if your applesauce is sweetened already, only egg whites if wanted. You could also leave off the crumble, but as previously stated - I am a serious sucker for crumble toppings. You could even turn these into apple spice cupcakes with cream cheese icing instead of the crumble! I would trade my crumble in for that...

What You'll Need:

(It looks like a lot of ingredients but there's a alot of spices - they are spice muffins!)

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/3 c canola oil

- 1 egg white and 1 whole egg

- 1 t cinnamon

- 1/2 t ginger

- 1/2 t clove

-1/2 t nutmeg

- (I added a sprinkle of all spice because I love it's warmth)

- 1/2 t salt

- 1 t baking soda

- 1 c applesauce

- 2 c flour

- 2 T flour

- 2 T butter

- 1/4 c light brown sugar

- 3 T oats

- 1/2 t cinnamon

What You'll Need to Do:

- Preheat oven to 325. Spray 12 cup muffin pan with no stick spray

- Cream together sugar, canola, and eggs. Mix in spices, and applesauce. In a separate small bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add that into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. 

- In the bowl you used for the flour mixture (save yourself some dishes!) combines the 2T flour, 2T softened butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 3T oats and 1/2 t cinnamon.

- Pour batter into muffin cups. Mine were filled about 3/4 of the way. Sprinkle crumble evenly over muffins. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set.

Berry crumble pie

This berry pie was a perfect dessert for the 4th of July dinner we had at my dads but it's just an overall amazing dessert for summertime. The berries are so sweet and perfectly in season that you just can't go wrong. I had originally wanted to just do blueberry and strawberry but had 4 leftover peaches and decided to throw them in. I also added the crumble at the last minute instead of a pie crust topping and it totally made it - I'm a sucker for crumble!

The pie was awesome. My husband said it "might be the best dessert you've ever made." It's super-duper easy too. I admit that I didn't make the pie crust but that will be my next adventure. For now, make this pie and share it with friends. It's so good you almost don't need the ice cream!

What you need:

- 1 deep dish pie crust

- 2 cups fresh blueberries

- 2 cups hulled and chopped strawberries

- optional peaches

- 3/4 cup white sugar

- 1/4 c cornstarch

- 1 lemon zested

- 2/3 c brown sugar

- 3/4 c oats

- 1/2 c AP Flour

- 1/2 t cinnamon

- 6 T softened butter

What to do:

Preheat oven to 400. Mix berries, white sugar, cornstarch and lemon zest together. Pour into pie pan.

- Mix softened butter, cinnamon, flour, oats and brown sugar together. Mix with a fork (or your hands!) until combined. Sprinkle evenly over top of the fruit. Place pie on a covered sheet pan to catch any fruit drippings.

- Bake for 40-50 minutes. I think mine was about 45 minutes. Let cool before slicing - this makes the fruit stay together better. You can certainly heat up the slices individually but I found that at room temperature the ice cream and pie mixed together perfectly.